# Documentarists really need to do their research **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** documentary-bio\ **Created:** [June 28, 2022, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007 "2022-06-28T01:25:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2022, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007/41 "2022-06-28T18:02:40Z")
I think it may have been _History’s Mysteries_, or maybe the show in the OP, but it was about the famous log that floats around in Crater Lake [the old man crater lake - Bing images](https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=v12qN910&id=1161D6AE53CDD0620B137932E5C8C27647CC8AC0&thid=OIP.v12qN910g4RJlda8ON06CwHaD4&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fcbsnews2.cbsistatic.com%2fhub%2fi%2fr%2f2016%2f10%2f08%2f15847cee-4a97-4856-8fe2-c7bf5e5e0b6d%2fthumbnail%2f1200x630%2f90aff43512a8e83b6faf369ee1ddd3db%2fcrater-lake-old-man-of-the-lake-promo.jpg&cdnurl=https%3a%2f%2fth.bing.com%2fth%2fid%2fR.bf5daa37dd7483844995d6bc38dd3a0b%3frik%3dwIrMR3bCyOUyeQ%26pid%3dImgRaw%26r%3d0&exph=630&expw=1200&q=the+old+man+crater+lake&simid=608002919476433505&FORM=IRPRST&ck=F5F648694B99163640A6FA6A207BD56B&selectedIndex=4&ajaxhist=0&ajaxserp=0) The footage? A guy in a tiny rowboat, in a green Louisiana swamp, poking a stump with a stick. Jesus Q. Christ! ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007/42 "2022-06-29T00:39:58Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > They could have ‘Gun Jesus’ just break into the middle of the scene and explain why a weapon is anachronistic, when it was originally produced, where it would have been used, and then tear it down and explain the working mechanisms, and then explain what would have been a better choice for the movie and scene. I adore Forgotten Weapons, and also C&Arsenal, well also The Chieftain - and many of the military oriented youtubers. mrAru and I will pretty much always catch Forgotten Weapons New stuff on Fridays, and Forgotten Weapons/C&Arsenal did an amazing [10 part series](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keWHqy1VfyY&list=PL9e3UCcU00TQD2hVzKwnLjqCaZ1SFfjhX) on machine guns of WW1 that we lust after purchasing the DVDs of. > [@MrAtoz](#): > > people who do the “historical re-enactments” I have around 2000 hours of research done in the early years of the internet combined with actually corresponding with an archeologist specifically about a specific tribal group of Turkmenistani nomads ca 1000 AD … another 500 or so on imperial Roman equites class females, and handmade my own Elizabethan merchant class clothing from the skin out. I have turned 3 entire fleeces from my dearly departed sheep into a length of cloth to turn into a Huldremose gown, using a drop spindle and a warp weighted loom. Don’t talk to me about reenactments on TV/cable on a field I have enough time sunk into for graduating in cultural anthropology [I joke about it, but you could drop a healthy mrAru and I somewhere there are woods, water, a clay bank, certain tools and a ram with 4 ewes, and the year after you could come over to a neolithic farmstead for dinner. Yes, we have spent serious time getting the skills we would need.] ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007/43 "2022-06-29T06:21:27Z")
I just saw that episode. In an earlier one about Renoir, they showed muzzle loading muskets- which unless I am totally wrong, technically were, since you put a cork ball down the barrel, which shoot out when you fire a cap gun cap. Disneyland sold them for Davy Crockett toys. > [@dorvann](#): > > At least it wasn’t on The _History_ Channel because they probably would had on this guy: Pretty much that show is 100% pure unadulterated racism, since of course “primitive brown men” could never build this or that, aliens did. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2022, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007/44 "2022-06-29T07:36:53Z")
You know tho if David Attenborough ever offered me a chance to spend a few years running around a dangerous jungle with him and a thousand creatures that wanted me for dinner with no chance of any type of payment other than food i’d so be there in a minute ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007/45 "2022-06-30T21:10:02Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > They should hire me as the propmaster/technical adviser. I’d get paid, and they’d have more accurate depictions. A friend of mine was a producer on that show. They can’t afford you, or really anyone. They produce the whole episode for something like $30,000. That has to pay for research, writer/producers, travel, location fees, transportation, music, voice over, editing, and post production, etc., plus the overhead for the production company. Actors, costumes, and props are what falls out of the couch cushions. Most of the extras you see provided their own wardrobes and weapons. Many are war reenactors who want a day’s pay for doing something they literally would do for free. They are cast based on photos and occasionally a Zoom meeting. If they don’t show up on the day, some backup gets picked. So what if the backup was a Civil War reenactor instead of a World War II reenactor? The alternative is to have a production assistant with a paper hat reading “soldier” hold a mop handle. > [@terentii](#): > > Most often it’s uniforms that are completely wrong. “Oh, hell, just take some Army surplus stuff and stick insignia on it, who’s gonna know the difference?” You can see why the uniforms aren’t right either. The people who are showing up don’t really know what “role” they are playing because the show can’t even be certain who will arrive. It’s hard for anyone to get the details right in that case. > [@MrAtoz](#): > > Did they once have ambitions to be serious actors, and this was the best job they could get? No. Most are happy to get any kind of acting job. They don’t have dialog because then they would have to pay a union actor’s rate, which is much higher. I have another friend who became an occasional actor as “police officer in true crime reenactment” because he looked enough like a cop (6-foot, decent build, square jaw) and because he had his own surplus police cruiser and a generic cop uniform. > [@carrps](#): > > Plus, it has so many details that are completely without any reliable evidence and a _ton_ of old wives’ tales type stories incorporated in them. I don’t care about anachronisms in the reenactments (especially guns – I _really_ don’t care) but at least get the actual story right. They try but they also want to tell a good story, and that’s probably more important to viewers. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007/46 "2022-06-30T21:15:58Z")
For the documentary I worked on, I did three months of research and seven days of taping. I think I was paid a total of $800. (I did, however, get an “Additional material by” credit.) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2022, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007/47 "2022-07-01T01:19:57Z")
The Benz mystery sphere? It is a ball check valve. It never moved strangely, just rolled down uneven floors. HMS Colossus? Found the wreck in 1974. Nothing special on board, since most of that was taken off right after the wreck, before it sank. Thanks to Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2022, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007/48 "2022-07-04T02:37:07Z")
I can’t believe the utter laziness and lack of attention to detail in a lot of these things; on CBC they just had an item about a very elderly woman who was a code breaker during WW II. The black and white photo was backwards, showing the subject woman in her uniform with her “Adanac” shoulder flashes. FFS, how difficult is it to at least get that part right? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/documentarists-really-need-to-do-their-research/967007.md?page=2)